Playing catch up.

We have had a crazy couple of weeks. First Krismon gets a cold and then the kids get it and it turns into ear infections. They get their antibiotics. We have friends come for a quick visit on their way to a longer visit with great grandparents. And of course, I couldn't escape so I caught the kids cold.
Right before leaving for San Diego.... Can we talk about a fun car trip of going up and down in altitude with ears plugging, nose sore from blowing. By the time we got to our little vacation rental, one ear was completely plugged. UGH. I couldn't just lay low either or hang on the beach. We had 3 park passes for Sea World, San Diego Zoo and the Wildlife Park. Thank goodness, Krismon's sister Krystine flew down from the bay area. We all went to Sea World on Friday and had a great time (outside of the red nose from incessant blowing). Max and Krismon sat and got wet during the Shamu show. Max begged to go on the Journey to Atlantis ride. Krismon took him, I am not that silly. I got a great photo of him after the first drop with a petrified look on his face. lol It was priceless. There was still more to come so afterwards he just kept saying he didn't like the ride..... Then we saw the pet show and that redeemed the day. We stayed in mission beach which was wonderful because once we got naps or rest periods the kids could play at the beach and enjoy the sun, surf and sand. Maggie loved the giant sandbox....
Saturday, Krismon started his golf tournement with his college buddies and Krystine, the kids and I met up with the other moms and kids and a couple of non golfing dads at the wildlife park. I am so glad Krystine was there because there were tons of hills that would have killed me to try and push both kids in the stroller up those monsters. We had a good time wandering around doing the safari bus tour. Then it was nap time then beach time. Later we went over to the single guys beach house for pizza, burgers and hot dogs. I think all the kids scared the single guys out onto the balcony. Quite a few, seemed very afraid to come inside like the kids were going to rub off on them or something.... lol There were a few though that have been around all the kids enough to just enjoy the time having them all together.
Sunday was the Zoo and just Krystine and I and the kids. We really enjoyed the Zoo, it was my favorite place. They have a double decker bus tour that shows 70% of the zoo. It was great since this was even hillier. And they had a sky gondola ride. That was fun too even though you couldn't really see the park but you could see the city a bit. We looked at the animals that we wanted to and skipped the ones we had already seen the prior two days. It was really good. And then Monday morning we were off after breakfast with Krismon's cousins and their family. It was a really great time despite the sickness and now thank goodness I am on antibiotics so hopefully I will get better soon. Such a whirlwind trip that the kids really loved.

Rock and a hard place

So I haven't written in a long time. And you would think no news is good news well not exactly. I am doing well. The pregnancy is going great outside of my turning into a major hormonal monster some days. My poooooor children having to deal with me on those days. Juno is slowly settling in even though we don't have a great daily walk habit established. Thank goodness for the treadmill.

The rock... My mom, the hard place... here. We went down to Phoenix, the whole crew two weekends ago. Mom had just gotten home from the hospital but sounded weak and frail on the phone. It didn't get much better while we were there in fact it got rougher. Her mental attitude is in a tough place, understandable given that none of us realized just how hard the recovery would be or how long it was going to take. It is definitely marathon paced. It will take a long time and she will need lots of help and probably some tough love as the process continues. She has been back in the hospital now for a few days which I believe to be a good thing since her medications need to be better regimented and she needs to be eating more solid foods before she is released again.

It is tough to be so far away, pregnant and not able to provide the support that I would like to give to help both my parents out. I wish that I could do more and be there for her. Plus at this point, it would be nice to have the kids out there even for bits of time to give her some smiles. I think Max would do a good job of that. Maggie might wear her out but either way, it won't likely happen that we get down there again before this baby comes unless I go on my own again which would be hard on Krismon.

Max is hitting the terrible 5s. He can be really helpful and then at times he just breaks down and reverts into toddler behavior. He has this tendency to mimic a friend of his that both cracks me up and annoys me at the same time.

Maggie is a tweenager living in a 2 yo body. I don't know how it is possible but she just is. Last night, we went to dinner with some friends. The kids call them Uncle. Uncle Nick was joking how no boy stood a chance when it came time to dating Maggie because of her Uncles and my husband. She misinterpreted what they were laughing about and thought they were laughing at her. She turned in her seat away from them and pouted and said, 'Hmf, they are laughing at me Mama.' I pointed out that in fact they were not laughing at her but at the thought of any boy standing a chance of dating her. Well that doesn't really comprehend with a 2 yo so it took a few times of not only me saying it but the guys telling her as well that they were not laughing at her before she turned around to smile at them. Another time after a playgroup at a dairy, Maggie was playing with two other girls when she said that they were mean to her. She walked to a bench away from them. When they would come over, she would get up in a huff and walk away. It was pretty funny but oh does it scare me with what is to come.

This weekend is a bit scary for me since Krismon is on a business trip and it is just me and the kids and the dog. Ummm yeah yesterday was a bit rough with Maggie starting my day at 4:30. Thank goodness today I got to sleep in til 6am. Right now they are taking pity on me and playing in the loft. Either that or cleaning or both. I still need to decide what are plan of action is for the day. I would like to wear them out so they sleep well tonight and so we can have a fun day today.

So that is my bit of catch up. I hope that I get to posting a bit more.

Waiting waiting waiting

So Monday night, we waited, my Dad and I until the surgeon came to see my Mom before going home. I believe we finally left the hospital around 9:15pm or so. He comes after he is done doing surgeries for the day. This man has been done a lot of surgery on my Mom and I had not met him prior to Monday. It becomes harder to be there when you have your own family to care for. Well I had heard lots about VLR (Dr. Van Lier Ribbink) can you see why they use initials for him? I was curious after hearing his name so often and not always in a positive way, he is a surgeon you know... Don't make me spell it out for you.

Anyway, given the amount of times he has operated and the severity of the surgery this time, I know something has changed for him. All of sudden, my Mom is now calling him by his first name and he has really humanized her. I guess you can only maintain that distance for so long.

Regardless, it was nice to meet him and have him explain in detail what his expectations were for her recovery and his concerns. And he let us know that if he didn't deliver enough detail when he came to see her and we were there that we should give him a boot to the posterior and demand more info. I assured him sweetly that I could comply with that. lol. He seemed a little surprised but then I am sure he is not used to many people agreeing to those terms.

Yesterday, Mom had a ct scan and is looking better so we wanted to hear from the horse's, err lol, VLR's mouth what he had to say about the scan. We waited until 10pm and he was a no show. We were poooppped out. I am hoping that he did end up coming by and seeing her before taking off for the day so that we do not need to wait tonight.

Anyway regardless of what he would say, it is so nice to see her willing and wanting to get up and walk around more and more independently. She is walking a little further each day and slowly getting her strength back.

Heck, she is even talking about wanting the whole family to take a cruise. I put the kabosh on it being before the baby is born. I can't even imagine wanting to be on cruise ship when I am 7 or 8 months pregnant. Besides the fear that we will be in Mexico and I will suddenly go into labor or some such.

My realization

It struck me yesterday that my life at home has gotten busier than I realized. Maggie has ballet now two days a week. She is in preschool one day a week. We usually have playgroup 1 to 2 days a week. Max is in school 5 days a week now that he turned 5. He has violin once a week and now on Fridays he is taking karate/gymnastics at school as well.

I know that it isn't actually a ton of things and they don't last for long periods except Max's schooling. It still is unbelievable that they are growing up and wanting to do more activities and be busy.

I keep calling and annoying my husband with the details of what they have going on. lol. I just want to keep them doing their things and give my mother in law a break at the same time so that she can have some time to herself. And thank goodness for my friend, Shelby, who is helping get Maggie to and from places and giving her a chance to be with her friends today and tomorrow. Who knew that a 2 yo would understand the concept of friends so well? I don't think Max did at her age. She is much more socially interactive unless the place is completely overrun with boys and then she likes to hide.

They drive me crazy but I miss them and I love hearing their voices on the phone.

PS My mom seems to be doing better and better each day. I am hoping today follows in the same vein.

Talk about falling off the wagon

January has just about gone away and I don't believe I have posted much. It seems like it has been an incredibly busy month of trying to get back into the swing of things and failing miserably. I haven't posted any holiday pictures like I wanted to but oh well.

The kids are glad to be back to school and activities. We got Maggie started at a recreation center taking a few preschool classes. Shhh don't tell anyone she is not three if they ask. My friend who watches her for me was taking her older son and Maggie and her middle son would participate sometimes and we figured we would throw them in as well. She is enjoying it so far. Then on Mondays and Saturdays, she has ballet class. I, so, did not think that she would love it as much as she does. She truly enjoys it and listens enthusiastically. Max began taking karate and gymnastics at school on Fridays and is so happy to be doing that.

Last weekend, we decided to go to all the petsmarts and look at the rescue dogs to see if we could find our new dog. We ended our quest at the aspca, where we found Juno. He is a small lab/dalmatian mix. He is a pretty boy, black with a white tuxedo front and some white on his paws. He is a little over a year old and weighs about as much as Max. The kids love him and he loves to play with them. I think we knew as soon as we saw him that he was meant for us. Now we just need to do some dog training with him. hmmmm that should be fun.

Now to the heavy stuff. My mom had surgery in the beginning of the month. It was pretty major and I guess I didn't realize how major it was until I got here on Friday. She's a survivor. She's had cancer 3 times and this time it was a little tougher because they had to take much of her pancreas. She has pretty much been in the hospital since the surgery because of infection. Before the surgery she had broken her ankle and that did not help to have that added to her recovery. Today though was a good day. Her infection seems to be slowly clearing up and the pain wasn't quite so bad. But there is still a several roads to choose from once she has made it out of the hospital. I thank God for the wonderful friends and family that she has that care for her and are here for her. And I thank God for my friends and family who have made it easier for me to be here as well so that I can help relieve a little of the burden that my Dad and Sister have in being there for long hours at the hospital. Now if I could lift a little of that burden off my Mom. I am just hoping to get her home before I have to leave so that she can get a better night's sleep and feel comfortable in her own home.

So if you have wondered where I went this is kind of the story but I am hoping that February I will get more on board again with the blog.
I got an email today from NaPo whatever about taking up the challenge of writing about wants everyday for a month. The idea of that really appealed to me because there are so many ways to talk about wants and especially how it relates to my born and unborn kids. Just so you know there is only one boy in my belly right now, not two.

Time with family

So I have lots of catching up to do once I have a chance to write down all the things that we have done. At the moment, we are in all family all the time mode. The kids are having an absolutely wonderful time hanging out and playing not only with all their aunts and their uncle but also all their extended family of aunts, uncles and grandparents.

Max is learning new words and phrases that I am sure we will hear about at his school when he dares to repeat them there! Maggie is just loving all the love and attention that she gets and gets to give especially to her youngest uncles who are 10 and 12. She practically tackles them in glee to give them hugs and kisses. Thank goodness they are both indulgent, kind and gentle.
It seems that Max isn't the only one who has a birthday around xmas as we have celebrated 3 other birthdays with our relatives.

I am sure there is more to write but I am going to keep short for the moment. Hopefully at some point I will do an overload of photos.

Snow Storm Las Vegas

Yesterday was a big day for me and the kids. I have seen snow here before in the north valley but never by us. I didn't really expect it and when Krismon called to ask if we had snow, at that point it was only rain. Around 2pm that changed to snow and it never stopped. It was the heavy, slushy fat snowflakes kind of snow. Maggie and I went out in the snow before picking up Max to take photos and then we hopped in the car and slowly drove to pick him up. He was excited to come home, get bundled up and play outside. He stayed out longer than Maggie before coming in.

Then this morning, Krismon and Max made a snowman to go next to our blow up Santa. It was great for the kids to have snow this year. I really hope we will get to have a couple of years of this so they can remember from year to year.